Tributes and Thanks
LACERS: During the Los Angeles City Employees Retirement System’s (LACERS) annual holiday party, held virtually in December (and covered in the January Alive!), the department honored many of its employees who were nominated by other employees for their helpfulness during the difficult 2021 calendar year.
Host was Gabriel Perez, Benefits Specialist, 16 years of City service. General Manager Neil Guglielmo, Club Member, spoke to employees during the event.
Normally, LACERS honors employees with its Guiding Principles awards at the end of the year, but since most everyone was working remotely, there was little opportunity to have enough shared experiences to come up with a list of candidates for the annual award. Nominations and voting were not held last year.
Instead, LACERS did something different – it asked all its employees to name a co-worker or group that made their job or life better over the past year, and a meaningful or impactful experience or connection they had with a Member that left them feeling inspired, appreciated, valued or proud.
More than 70 people and experiences were mentioned. LACERS then invited employees to recount those people and experiences in video form.
In addition to the testimonial videos, LACERS also honored three who were about to retire (and now have), and then honored those with service anniversaries. Those honored as they retired were Alex Rabrenovich, Chief Benefits Analyst, 32 years of City service, Club Member; Lita Payne, Assistant General Manager, 31 years, Club Member; and Rico Rafols, Benefits Analyst, 15 years.
Those celebrating service anniversaries were:
- 15 years: Rico Rafols (now Retired), Kimberly Baldwin and Bernadette Molina
- 20 years: Thomas Ma, Amy Petrique, Maria “Melani” Rejuso, Todd Bouey, Fon Leidig, Veronica Flores,Pearl Fregoso, Karen Freire, Andy Chiu, Wendy Johnson, Veronica Sanchez and Brittany Cotton
- 25 years: Kristal Baldwin, Patricia Gonzalez, Edeliza Fang and Dale Wong-Nguyen
- 35 years: Kelly Dickinson
Congratulations to the Retirees, those celebrating service anniversaries, and the people who made LACERS’ 2021 a better experience for all coworkers.
